


Summer Nights and Black Days (How Times Change)

by Anonymous



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Regulus has thoughts and watches family drama go down, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Walburga Black's A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23352424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: The summer Regulus turns eleven is the summer everything changes. It's the summer before his first year at Hogwarts. It's the summer he breaks a vase. It's the summer Sirius nearly dies. It's the summer he gets a happy family.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 85
Collections: Regulus Black Fest 2020, anonymous





	Summer Nights and Black Days (How Times Change)

**Author's Note:**

> For Regulus Black Fest 2020 Prompt 56:House Black centric au, Regulus Black and Sirius Black siblings bond fix it. Perhaps fix their relationship with their parents, and include their other relatives.
> 
> This is the first story I've not only published but actually finished so feedback would be great! I really love Regulus and I hope I characterized him well. 
> 
> You'll never convince me that the Blacks weren't dramatic af, lol.

It’s the summertime and Regulus has just turned eleven a week ago and Sirius is twelve when their Father has had enough. He stuns Mother, picks up Regulus and grabs Sirius by the hand and apparates to St. Mungos. Regulus didn’t even know he was shaking until he feels the steadiness of his Father. Sirius is covered in blood, his own blood, what should have been Regulus’s blood. 

Regulus had never been afraid of their mother because he was the quiet one, the obedient one, the  _ good _ one. The son who listened to her every word and was going to get sorted into Slytherin like he was supposed to. The son who clung to proper etiquette like a lifeline and had never once rebelled.

But that didn’t protect him when Walburga Black decided to curse him for accidentally breaking the vase that has existed longer than his grandparents. A vase that could have been easily fixed with magic. 

Regulus hadn’t seen it coming. But Sirius had. And Sirius had hidden Regulus behind him and took the cutting curse that left him covered in blood.

That was the scene Father had walked in, to the sight of his wife cursing his blood-soaked eldest who’s shielding his younger brother behind him. Over a broken vase that could have easily been fixed by magic. 

When the Orion Black apparates into St. Mungos with one son covered in blood and another trembling in his arms, the healers automatically rush forward and take Sirus away. 

It’s Regulus’s fault that Sirius is hurt. If he hadn’t been so clumsy, so eager to go to Diagon Alley and get his school supplies, and knocked over the vase, mother wouldn’t have gotten angry and she wouldn’t have tried to curse him and Sirius wouldn’t have gotten hit with it trying to protect him. 

Regulus doesn’t even know he’s crying until he feels his father desperately trying to soothe him. 

“Shhh, it’s okay, everything’s going to be okay, Sirius will be healed before you even realize it,” Father repeats over and over again, holds him close and rocks him back and forth. There's a phantom memory of being held like this, of feeling safe and secure, and it’s nice. 

His father casts a sleeping charm on him, and Regulus falls asleep, only hearing a faint, “I never should have left you alone with her”, before he drifts away. 

He wishes father was home more often. 

  
  


_ …. _

_ Be good, little brother, and then you’ll be safe.  _

_ Here’s what I need you to do Reggie.  _

_ Don’t let her catch you crying or laughing or playing. Don’t draw attention to yourself. Just do what she tells you and be quiet unless told otherwise. Then she won’t hurt you.  _

Regulus had followed Sirus’s rules to the letter from the day he heard them. He didn’t cry or laugh or play pretend. He didn’t speak unless spoken to and never asked questions. He had been obedient. 

Regulus had tried so hard to be good like Sirius told him too. 

But it hadn’t mattered in the end, had it? 

His mother still tried to hurt him with a cutting curse for knocking over a vase that could have been easily fixed with magic. 

If their father hadn’t been there at that moment…

Sirius would have been dead from blood loss.

_ “Promise you’ll write?”  _

_ “Every single day, Reggie” _

_ “You barely wrote at all!” _

_ “Oh, sod off, I’ve been busy.” _

They hadn’t spoken properly since Sirius went to Hogwarts. His brother had promised to write daily but Regulus had only gotten five letters total in the first semester. 

One informing him that he had broken the family’s expectations by getting sorted into Gryffindor. Another talking about his new friends: James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. The other three all about the exciting adventures the four were having. 

Even when Sirius had come home for Yule, he barely spared Regulus a glance as he eagerly told their father about what he'd been learning and got into screaming matches with their mother.

The second semester he only wrote three letters. Regulus hadn’t been able to bring himself to open them and hear about Sirius’s fun shenanigans with his brand new friends while Regulus was all alone. 

It appeared the little brother Sirius once adored was forgotten about. Replaced by the more interesting, bold Gryffindor companions.

But Sirius had protected Regulus without a second thought, nearly sacrificed his own life for him. 

Maybe Sirius still loved him after all.

….

Everything after happened so quickly that the following week was honestly a blur. 

It was quite the scandal for pureblood society that Lord Orion Black had divorced his wife Walburga Black for abusing their children. It was also interesting to learn that apparently what mother’s usual routine in caring for Regulus and Sirius wasn’t right or normal. 

(When Walburga Black was later sentenced to Azkaban for the crime of child abuse, Regulus watched in fascination as his Aunt Lucretia and Uncle Alphard started clapping and singing, “Ding, dong, that magic-forsaken witch is dead!” when they arrived at Black Manor. Father had started rubbing his head and murmuring, "How are they Slytherins, how is this my family?” over and over again as Sirius joined in their chant)

Father was taking care of them now, and it was so different from what Regulus was used to. He read him and Sirius stories before bed, and not only let them fly but actually watched them too! He didn’t yell or start throwing around spells when Regulus or Sirius accidentally broke something, instead, he made sure they weren’t hurt then fixed it and told them to be more careful. 

Regulus didn’t have to be quiet. He didn’t have to live in fear of enraging his mother and getting punished. He and Sirius got to run around the house, and play outside on their brooms. They actually got to visit their other relatives their mother had never let them see!

It was so nice. 

Months later, on September 1st, surrounded by a happy family for the first time in his life, his older brother by his side, Regulus doesn’t feel afraid as he steps onto platform 9 ¾. He’s not worried about what house he’ll be sorted into.

He knows his family will always be there for him. 

They’re Blacks, and Blacks take care of their own. 


End file.
